Garrison Elementary School student jazz band performs classic jazz songs with music teacher Jon Schwartz on Tuesday in the school’s cafeteria.

Oceanside 
The first-grade boys stood gamely before microphones on the stage of their school’s multipurpose room, singing the lyrics to “Sweet Home Chicago,” a blues standard.

Their teacher, Jon Schwartz, accompanied them on electric guitar, and he wanted more passion in the performance.

“It’s called rock ’n’ roll. It’s not called nappy time,” he said.

The music lesson took place at Garrison Elementary School, which the Oceanside Unified School District has designated as a visual and performing arts campus. Schwartz and his students have formed a first-grade blues band, which has performed at the school’s talent show and at the city’s Thursday night Sunset Market on Pier View Way.

Schwartz, in his second year at the school, is a former professional musician who has introduced blues music into his classroom as a way of generating enthusiasm and interest among his students as he teaches reading, writing, phonetics, math and other subjects. On a recent morning, he walked his students through the lyrics to a song, stressing proper pronunciation and explaining concepts such as contractions.

In their performances, the girls and boys in the class flank Schwartz, performing choreographed dance moves and singing their repertoire of a few blues songs. The students clearly relish their time on stage, singing and dancing with gusto. Some wear hats and dark glasses.

“It reminds me of ‘School of Rock,’ ” said Tomika Tatum, whose daughter, Azariyah, performs with the band. She referred to the movie starring Jack Black, in which a substitute teacher surreptitiously grooms his students to compete in a battle of the bands competition. “Just the way (Schwartz) has been able to interweave it, it’s been a beautiful thing.”

The class also has been invited to perform its blues songs for student teachers at Cal State San Marcos in early May.

“This is a great opportunity for future teachers to experience what it looks like and sounds like to integrate several standard areas at once — pairing visual and performing arts with literacy, with language acquisition and development, with math ... the list continues,” Leslie Potter Mauerman, a professor with the Cal State San Marcos School of Education, wrote in an email.

Garrison Principal Margie Oliver praised Schwartz’s creativity, noting that students learn better when they are relaxed and having fun.

“It doesn’t all have to be pencil, paper and workbook learning, sitting in their seats. It can be up and moving,” Oliver said.

Schwartz said he began using music in the classroom earlier in the year, but the band came together in March as the students prepared to take part in the school’s talent show.

The students embraced the idea. Along with performing, they are also learning computer skills through blogging and creating graphics related to the band. The class is even making a digital recording with the Garage Band computer program.

“It’s awesome. We performed at the talent show and people were clapping,” said Lorelai McDermott. “We never get nervous.”

“When I heard the talent show was coming and we were going to perform, I felt excited and I couldn’t wait for that day to come,” Azariyah Tatum said.